Christmas gifts for writers, part 4

Captain’s Log, Supplemental

Blog book giveaway:
To enter, go to the blog links below and post a comment there.
My Monday book giveaway is Scoop by Rene Gutteridge
My Thursday book giveaway is Blind Dates Can Be Murder by Mindy Starns Clark.
You can still enter both giveaways. On Monday, I'll draw the winner for the Scoop and post the title for another book I'm giving away.

Win an iPod Nano! Exclusively for my newsletter YahooGroup subscribers, I have a huge contest running until January 31st! Get more info on my contest page!

It’s starting to look a lot like Christmas...

Last year, I came across an article on gifts for writers, and I expanded on it with an article of my own. I’ll be posting a part of it every Friday and then eventually post the entire article on my Story Sensei blog.

I’m starting this series early so your loved ones—er, Santa can start saving up for maybe something extra special.

And if you have ideas of your own, leave a comment and I’ll add it to the list!

Gifts for Writers, part four (continued from part three)

• A set of thank you cards for contest judges, editors, or agents

One thing I think writers don’t do enough is SEND THANK YOU CARDS. To editors and agents even when they reject you, because you’re developing a relationship with them and you don’t want to come across as a disgruntled Prima Dona writer.

Also, send thank you notes to contest judges—a very under-recognized breed—who give their time to judge your entry. I don’t care if they gave you the lowest score, they still took the time to read it and give feedback. You don’t have to agree with the feedback, but at least be courteous, even (and especially) if the judge wasn’t as courteous to you.

• Gelpens

• A creativity journal

• A special pen: Montblanc, Waterman, or a more inexpensive rollerball or fountain pen (Levenger.com has a few cheaper ones)

There’s a possibility that your writer might be picky about her pens. Some like them lighter, some like them heavier. Some like a thick barrel, others like a thin barrel. Some like them short, other like them long. A good pen can be nice to autograph books with, but there’s also the possibility that a writer will want a more flamboyant pen for signings.

• A nice business card case

I give out tons of business cards at conferences. This might change when I get bookmarks, but business cards are best to give out to editors and agents.

• Blank disks/CDs for backing up files or giving away (I’m thinking of handing out CDs with free stuff when I go to a booksigning—free short stories, novel excerpts, etc. For a while, I was also using CDs to back up my files.)

• A USB flashdrive for backup and storage (I love these things, they’re so small, light, and inexpensive.)

• An external hard drive backup, or a subscription to an online backup service.

I can’t stress enough what other authors have told me—back up everything OFTEN. I use an external hard drive to back up my files, but there are also online subscription services like .mac which automatically will back up all the files on the computer at a certain time each day.

• Aromatherapy—candles, a cold diffuser, an electric low heat diffuser, a candle diffuser, or a warm oil diffuser, plus a variety of essential oils.

• A bath set or one of any of these things—soaps, bath salts, bath fizzies, bath oils, towels, exfoliator, an over the tub rack to hold books or snacks, bathrobe (for pampering and brainstorming)

• Little clip-on nightlight for late-night reading or scribbling. (There’s also a neat alternative in the Levenger LightWedge, which has a magnifier attachment. It also comes in LightWedge Magnifier paperback size.)

• Bookweight for holding books open flat

To be continued next week Friday

TMI:

Writing: I posted another article on dialogue at my Story Sensei blog.